The Torch

The Torch

FIRE is excited to announce that we have been awarded a four-star rating from Charity Navigator—the highest possible! Charity Navigator, America’s premier charity evaluator, awards this coveted rating to only a portion of the thousands of charities it evaluates. By designating FIRE as a four-star charity, Charity Navigator recognizes that FIRE “consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America.”

We are very grateful to our supporters for choosing to give their hard-earned dollars to support FIRE’s mission, and we are proud that our rating publicly affirms that FIRE is worthy of their trust. Please take a moment to check out FIRE’s four-star review, and continue to support our programs by making a 100 percent tax deductible donation to FIRE today!

Since the release of the infamous April 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, FIRE has argued that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR’s) guidance on Title IX misstates the law and exceeds the agency’s authority. Last July, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights about the threats to civil rights posed—ironically—by OCR’s overreach. Last week, two of the commissioners wrote to key members of Congress to express the same concern.

More than half of America’s top colleges maintain speech codes that blatantly violate First Amendment standards. But every year FIRE takes a closer look at the previous year’s incidents of college censorship to determine the nation’s 10 worst abusers of student and faculty free speech rights.

Last year, FIRE commented on the Campus Accountability and Safety Act (CASA), the bill spearheaded by Senators Claire McCaskill, Kirsten Gillibrand, Dean Heller, and Marco Rubio to address sexual assaults on college campuses. Yesterday, the senators introduced an updated version of the bill.

Like the original CASA, this new version contains some provisions that FIRE can support and some provisions that FIRE cannot support.

Today, the University of North Carolina (UNC) System’s Board of Governors could vote to shut down three academic centers housed at institutions within the system: the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity at the University of North Carolina School of Law; the Institute for Civic Engagement and Social Change at North Carolina Central University; and the Center for Biodiversity at East Carolina University.

Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie spoke to students at Emory University last week about what it means to defend freedom of speech and why students must vigilantly do so. Though his plea was well-argued and powerful, it didn’t reach all Emory community members—particularly not whoever destroyed a display set up by student group Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP) Sunday night and Monday morning.

In a number of recent articles, the University of Alabama’s (UA’s) student newspaper, The Crimson White, has covered the university’s shortcomings in upholding students’ freedom of speech. Examining recent campus history as well as UA’s current written policies on student expression, the writers of TheCrimson White have, together, put forth a strong argument that the university needs to do much better in order to meet its legal and moral obligations, as a public institution of higher education, under the First Amendment.

Last week, the New York Post reported that two Harvard Law School student groups—the Women’s Law Association (WLA) and the Law and International Development Society (LIDS)—had invited Bronx Defenders Executive Director Robin Steinberg to speak at the school, and that she would be honored in the school’s International Women’s Day Exhibit. According to the Post, New York Police Department union leaders objected, citing Steinberg’s alleged mismanagement and misleading statements relating to an anti-cop rap video that included appearances by Bronx Defenders employees and was filmed, in part, in the Bronx Defenders offices.

Last week, we announced FIRE’s first ever Spring Regional Workshop to take place March 21 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, my colleague Molly Nocheck and I are proud to announce our line-up of FIRE speakers for the event: